Miss. man charged in suspicious letters case appears in court

Dutschke denies FBI's claims

UPDATED 10:44 AM CDT Apr 29, 2013

TUPELO, Miss. -

The Mississippi man charged with making and possessing ricin as part of the investigation into poison-laced letters sent to President Barack Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker and a Mississippi judge appeared in federal court in Oxford on Monday.

FBI agents arrested Everett Dutschke, 41, on Saturday at his home in Tupelo.

He said little during the brief hearing other than to answer the judge's questions about whether he understood the charges against him. He answered that he did.

Dutschke was assigned an attorney during Monday's hearing, The Clarion-Ledger reported. Dutschke will have a preliminary hearing Thursday in Oxford.

"I wouldn't recognize ricin if I saw it," Dutschke said earlier last week. "Everybody has something suspicious in their house. But no, there is nothing related to these letters."

Earlier this week, Dutschke denied the claims made against him. Agents searched his house and karate studio on the same day similar charges were dropped against Elvis Presley impersonator Kevin Curtis.

"(It was) overwhelming. To say the least, it was overwhelming," said Curtis, who spent nearly a week in jail while his lawyer tried to clear his name.

"Instead of trying to defend her client, she just said, 'That guy did it,'" Dutschke told reporters earlier this week.

It was an accusation the FBI looked into as agents switched their focus from the celebrity impersonator to the karate instructor, who once ran for a seat in the Mississippi House of Representatives.

Investigators claim Dutschke has a checkered past. He is seen in a picture with Wicker from 2007 that was obtained by ABC News. Court records show that Dutschke was out on bond on child molestation charges at the time of his arrest.

If convicted, Dutschke could be sentenced to life in prison.

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